The grand thing is not to take every opportunity of administering
physic, but of using every means of with-holding it! And if physic be
necessary, not to doctor him yourself, unless it be in extreme and
urgent cases (which in preceding and succeeding Conversations I either
have or will indicate), but to employ an experienced medical man. A
babe who is always, without rhyme or reason, being physicked, is sure
to be puny, delicate, and unhealthy, and is ready at any moment to
drop into an untimely grave!

I will maintain that a healthy child _never_ requires drugging with
opening physic, and that costiveness is brought on by bad
management. Aperient medicines to a healthy child are so much poison!
_Let me impress the above remarks on every mother's mind;_ for it is a
subject of vital importance. Never, then, give a purgative to a
healthy child; for, if he be properly managed, he will never require
one. If you once begin to give aperients, you will find a difficulty
discontinuing them. Finally, I will only say with _Punch_,--"Don't"


CONCLUDING REMARKS ON INFANCY.

115. In concluding the first part of our subject--Infancy--I beg to
remark: there are four things essentially necessary to a babe's
well-doing, namely, (1) plenty of water for his skin; (2) plenty of
fresh genuine milk mixed with water for his stomach (of course, giving
him ONLY his mother's milk during the first six, eight, or nine
months of his existence); (3) plenty of pure air for his lungs; (4)
plenty of sleep for his brain: these are the four grand essentials for
an infant; without an abundance of one and all of them, perfect health
is utterly impossible! Perfect health! the greatest earthly blessing,